1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vacuum immobilizer support for maintaining a person in an immobilized state.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Transportation of accident victims in an immobilized state is widely recognized as important to prevent secondary trauma, and particularly injury to the spinal cord. Not so well recognized are the important benefits which can be achieved in immobilizing other classes of patients.
In-hospital transportation of patients from their rooms to other areas of the hospital for special diagnostic procedures or for special treatment involves a number of changes in patient position, any one of which could aggravate existing medical afflictions. The patient must be lifted and transferred from bed to gurney or wheelchair, transported to the desired area, and in like manner must be physically moved about for diagnosis or treatment, etc. and then returned to his or her room. Where immobilization is critically important, as in spinal injury cases, the patient is typically strapped down firmly onto a wooden backboard which is then placed on the gurney. Even this does not always prevent secondary trauma from occurring because of lateral forces acting on the patient during turning of the gurney or tipping of the backboard, for example.
Trauma also develops because the weight of the patient is unevenly distributed over the hard backboard. The prominent bones of the body rest upon the board, developing pressure points, while the body structure between these pressure points is relatively unsupported. Bedridden patients also suffer from the effects of these pressure points over a long period of time.
What has just been said about the desirability of better immobilization of patients lying or transported in a prostrate position also applies to patients in wheelchairs. In fact, it is sometimes even more difficult to avoid aggravation of preexisting injuries when moving patients into and out of wheelchairs, or into and out of vehicles. There is presently no completely effective way to immobilize accident victims or patients in emergency or hospital situations, or to immobilize the aged, the infirm or the orthopedically impaired who are wheelchair bound or bedridden.
There has been a trend toward the provision of padding on backboards at usual pressure points, or the covering of such boards with a padding sleeve. This has been effective in reducing bruising and other secondary trauma, but only at the sacrifice of optimum immobilization.
Recent studies have suggested the importance of proper patient immobilization following an accident. Fully twenty percent of paraplegia has been attributed to improper handling of victims following the accidents.
The victims of Marfan Syndrome are a tragic example of the need for adequate patient immobilization. This genetic disease affects the connective tissue of the skeleton, lungs, eyes, heart and other organ systems such that the tissue does not hold the body parts in proper position. When the joints cannot be held in position the body will not support its own weight and the patient becomes bedridden. Attempts to transport such patients have resulted in dislocated joints, followed by days of pain and severe swelling until the joints have returned to their normal positions. This has occurred even when the patient has been transported within a protective cast resting upon layers of cushioning material.
One of the better immobilization means of the prior art is a vacuum or air evacuated bag or casing which is filled with small discrete elements such as round beads. The bag completely underlies the patient and is made wide enough to come up along the sides of the patient for cradling and supporting the body. When air is evacuated from the bag the bag becomes rigid and immobilizes the patient in a protective cocoon.
The arrangement has serious shortcomings. Evacuation of the bag is accompanied by longitudinal shrinking or shortening of the bag which undesirable causes spinal compression.
Further, the bag tends to be structurally prone to transverse bending when it is the sole means used to transport a patient. This tendency is alleviated if the bag is made wide enough to substantially encircle the patient. This produces a cylindrical configuration that does not bend easily, but the extra width of such a bag presents storage problems for paramedics who have limited space available in emergency vehicles.
Thus, although this form of vacuum bag tends to satisfactorily immobilize a patient, it is not well suited to use by paramedics, and it has apparently not been suggested how it could be modified to suit the needs of that larger class of persons who are in need of proper immobilization in bed, in wheelchairs, and during in-hospital handling and transportation.